


Whitewater

by orphan_account



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, First Time, Fluff, Horror Trip, Marijuana, Oneshot, Smoking, deep topics, pot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-10 01:09:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15280257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Chloe convinces Max to try a joint with her.Convo gets deep. Chloe dips into horror-trip territory.





	Whitewater

'What a brave warrior,' you think to yourself, smirking. Even though you feel like bursting out in laughter, you know it would just torpedo any future activities like that. So you close the distance and pat her back instead, taking the rolled piece of filled paper out of her hand.

"I commend you, Maxi-Pad! You really went for the lungs on first try!"

Oh no, it looks pathetic how Max is coughing her guts out. However, the first ever pull of smoke feels like you're burying your face in ashes, and taking a good sniff. You remember the first time _you_ smoked a joint. You thought you were eating an ash sandwich and swallowed it the wrong way. The feeling after you finished the thing made it worth it a thousand times though.

And you are sure it will for Max, too.

"How the hell can you enjoy breathing in coal dust?" Max asks, slowly finding her way back into the land of the breathing.  
You look at the joint in your hand, then back at Max. Before thinking of an answer, you take a mouthful of fumes from the pot-filled roll between your fingers, and let it enter your own lungs. A familiar, soothing feeling, no longer ashen, but rather silky. They say it's bad that smokers don't feel uncomfortable breathing in fumes, but frankly, you couldn't give less fucks if you were wearing a chastity belt.

Not that you ever would wear one.

"Every worry you'd ever have just shuts down. You just gotta give it time," you explain, smoke leaving your mouth like you were some dragon-punk. That _would_ be badass, if you're completely honest. Flying over Arcadia Bay with scaly wings of awesomeness. Occasionally burning down some dipshit's RV when he wouldn't give you the proper stuff for a good price. Chloestrasza the Blazing, has a certain ring to it.

Max' unbelieving frown brings you back to reality. Meh, more stuff for you. It's expensive in the first place. Not that you're uncomfortable sharing with Max specifically, but life's life, right?

"Well, if you prefer losing out on Max-imal fun, I will not stop you!"

Holy balls, it's hitting you faster than usual.

Obviously, you were looking for a reaction with that kind of phrasing, but when Max gives you that stare, you freak out a little. She must be looking for your soul, wanting to roast it over a fire for the pun, you figure. Instead she snags the joint from your fingers and inhales a whole lungful. She does not even twitch her eyes.

Did you let a demon into your room by chance?

It feels so wrong, but you have to laugh when eventually she coughs again. You try to take the joint away from her hand, but she does not let you.

"You talk so much crap when you are high," she utters in between of coughs, "maybe this will help me make some sense out of that babbling."

Ouch, that stung! You punch her in the shoulder, then you try to snag the joint out of her hand again, unsuccessfully.

"Screw you, Chloe, get your own joint, this is mine now!" she barks, moving towards the bed.

This is going to be an interesting day.

* * *

"Chloe?"

"Yes Max?"

"I've been thinking."

"Bad Max!"

"I'm serious!"

"Me too!"

The ceiling is especially interesting today, with all the nothing in between of everything else, but it does a terrible job distracting you from asking yourself what the girl to your left is on about.

You turn to eye the little freckleface next to you. What is going on behind those dreamy eyes of hers?

"You know, when I turn back time, I don't move back myself."

You nod, she mentioned that sometime before.

"But everything else moves back to where it was at that time."

Yes, she said that, too.

"I remember talking to Warren about the planets..."

"Woah, time out!" you interrupt her. Out of all people you don't want to talk about him here, but why though? He is not a terrible guy, and genuine friends with Max. If only you were not as high and could think properly... anyway, it feels off to you.

"What?" Max asks, looking at you with a very confused expression in her face.

You open your mouth to explain yourself, but there are no words in your brain to be made into sound. Forcing the process just produces unhelpful "eh" and "uh" sounds, making the little bugger next to you turn her confusion into pressed laughs.

She's laughing at you, the little bastard. If only she wasn't so...

"This was a mistake, I don't understand you even when I'm blazed myself. Anyway, what was I gonna say?" She turns back to look at the ceiling, and you do the same, peeved a little.

"Right, planets. They move too, right? So does the sun and the whole solar system. The Galaxies, too, and so on."

This is going to turn into a headache if she does not get to the point soon. You squint, bringing the joint in your hand to your mouth. Ganja to the rescue, before Max turns into a stoned Nobel-Prize winner.

"So when I'm not moving, but everything else is," Max voice turns a little monotonous, another victim to the "spinach-rolls" in your hands. "Chloe, why am I not in space yet?"

You nod, making a grimace of deep respect before Max' infinite wisdom. You are not really sure if you are serious, but right now you could not care less.

"If I get your theory right," you say, blowing another cloud into the air, "you missed one important detail."  
Max turns to look at you again, but you keep staring at the ceiling, just acknowledging her with one of your Chloe-Style grins.

"You are so damn high, you are anywhere you'd like to be in space."

There is only one way somebody could laugh madly at this non-joke, amongst besties and blazed to the heavens.

A perfect fit, no?

* * *

What the hell did you bring home the other day?

That's not the usual stuff. Have you been ripped off all the time, and accidentally got the real weed for once? You can barely think straight at this point.

It feels like you are watching yourself do... stuff. Holy tripballs!

You... your other... same you... if your body had a way to connect to a computer screen, it would display a blue screen.

Deep breaths! As much as this is an out of body experience in a sense, you are still you and no amount of marijuana can get in between the two... one of you. Jesus Christ, Chloe, what is this weed you've bought?

To reassure yourself of reality, you tap the area to your left. Leg, belly, boobie, face, a groan, thank fuck for keeping a sprawled out Max next to you.

"Get your fingers out of my eyes, Chlo!"

A big smile tries to escape your face over your ears, but luckily your face is not as elastic. "I had to make sure you're still there, Bat-Max!"

Her tired moan purrs into your ears. "As if I'm in any condition to move right now. Is getting high always that intense?" she asks.  
You chuckle, not answering. Intense, Max found the right word to describe this peculiarly strong weed.

Butterflies start flying around in your stomach. No, not butterflies, moths! Bad timing for a horror trip! You search for Max' hand and grip it hard. The anxiety slowly fades. Your best friend is still there.

"Are you alright?" Max asks very worriedly, even rolling sideways to face you. Considering your state, that's a big feat. She does not let go of your hand.

"Yeah, everything's just as it's supposed to be right now."

Max blue eyes keep staring expectantly, not buying it for the whole story.

Well crap, you have to explain yourself, right?

"I've been thinking, too," you admit.

"Bad Chloe!"

You throw her hand back at her, making her laugh again. "Don't you throw my lines back at me, get your own ones!"

She drops flat on her back again, still audibly amused, but she ceases quickly. "What's on your mind?" she asks.

Chloe Price getting sentimental with worry, and that while being brutally stoned, the wonders would never cease in this world, would they? You let it happen though and speak up.

"I've had this silly idea that when you rewind, that only you go back in time, and I stay where I am."

"What do you mean?" she asks.

"Well," thinking is really hard right now, but the very idea of not addressing the question makes the anxiety in your stomach come back, "you rewind, you go back in time, you vanish for me, the Chloe you meet is past me, but from there it's kind of like," you put your finger to your mouth, tapping your lips in search for a proper picture to describe, "like a fork in the road. Chloe two used to be Chloe one," you point to yourself, "but from there she does a different decision and we split up. But there is only one Max Caulfield, because she can actually travel these forks in the road."

"Woah, that's deep," Max notes, "but what are you trying to tell me?"

This feels so embarrassing to you all of a sudden, and you want to abort immediately, but the unwelcome feeling in your gut haunts you again. You take a deep breath and decide to soldier through. It's just Max you're talking to here, right?

"I'm," you stammer a little, "Max, if you rewind, are you gone from my life? Like this version of mine? Does this even make sense? It does not make any sense! Chloe you don't make any sense!" You wipe through your face with your hand. That whole riling up made you sweat like hell. "I need more pot," you decide, hearing an approvingly sounding murmur from the left. As much as murmurs can sound approvingly that is. They are murmurs, and usually just say... murmur. You shake your head.

The weed is on your desk. You roll to the right. If you do the roll properly you can elegantly swoop upwards to sit up and then you can get...

Or just roll off the bed and land your face on the ground. As elegant as mashed potatoes. 'You useless pothead,' you think to yourself.

"Maaax! Help!" you moan.

No answer.

"Come on, you didn't blaze as much as I did. Just help me get up!"

No answer.

Always rely on your friends in times of need. Good joke. The damn girl probably dozed off. It's her first blaze after all, unless she did not tell you about getting high in Seattle. But look at her, she does not look like the pothead-type. You yourself made her try it with you now, and that was hard work in the first place.

Chloe "good influence" Price.

You would just stay down here, but the floor is hard and uncomfortable, ugh. With some convincing, you make your arms lift you up. Did they actually put something else into the weed? If so, then you would feel really bad to have made Max try her first high with spiked pot. You open your eyes, focusing on the bed. If that is not pure weed, then you can't blame Max for falling asleep all of a sudden.

But where the bloody fuck is Max?

The bed is empty.

In a matter of seconds, you sober up on pure adrenaline. Did... did it happen? When you just mentioned it?

You jump on the bed feeling through the covers. No Max. "Fuck, no! Please! No! You didn't do that to me! Right? You didn't!"

Is this what hollowness feels like? Just a second ago she was here, and now, without any ado, she's just - poof - gone.

You bury your face into the sheets, mumbling repeatedly like a mantra. "She didn't! She didn't! She didn't!..."

Like a cat startled by an airhorn, you jump, ending up kneeling on the bed. Good thing nobody saw that, since the sound that actually startled you was a displeased, dreamy grunt.

"You little piece of adorable shit and I can't even blame you. Screw you!" you squeak. Agitated by yet another rush of adrenaline, you jump off and drop next to Max on the floor on the other side of the bed.

"Ugh, quit shouting! My head is exploding!" she protests, eyes closed. She must have rolled off the bed in the same moment you did, and your blazed head did not notice. Relieved, you grab her head on the sides... but... you turn it into a hug, earning you another displeased grunt. "Let... Let me get back on the bed, your floor sucks, Chlo."

"Sorry, I'm just... overthinking things."

Her eyes shoot open and fire alarmed glares at you. "Did you just think I rewound out of your life?" she asks.

You freeze. Your head does something like a barely noticeable nod; enough so she notices it.

"Aw, Chloe." She wraps her arms around you.

Confident punk girl shits her pants when her friend goes missing... two feet off where she was expected to be.

'Maybe she is right and I am blazing a little too much.'

* * *

Oh, the munchies, how could you forget about them.

Luckily, Max found some snacks downstairs, after she had a small nap. She told you she had to rewind time due to a mishap with the contents of the cupboard. You froze for a second, but she winked at you. She was still there.

She is still there.

Although you did not hear anything hit the ground from downstairs... but would you have if she rewound it? Was she just... no she would never, right?

All this time travel shtick is making your head spin, and this time it is not the strong Ganja, you are sure.

Taking turns, you both grab into the wildly assorted (read: just hella mixed) bowl of goodies, taking care of the weed-induced munchies.

While Pandora's box is conveniently open already, and you gracefully made a fool of yourself towards Max, you figure you might as well go all in with bringing up topics in so-not-Chloe-Style ways.

"Hey Max!"

"What's up, Chloe?"

"You didn't hesitate at all."

The priceless picture of Max having opened her mouth to insert a potato crisp into her mouth, but suddenly halting, opens up before you. She closes her mouth and turns her head to look at you, but the crisp stays where it was. You feel like you're in some slapstick comedy piece out of some wannabe funny author's work, but it makes you snort nevertheless.

"What do you mean?" she asks.

"When I dared you to kiss me you went straight for it, not even contemplating."

Her eyes grow big and her jaw drops, but not even a second later, her face relaxes and a wide smile pushes her cheeks apart.

"Should I have?" she asks cheekily, finally giving the potato crisp between her fingers the long overdue attention it deserves.

"I, uhm," suddenly you fidget, scratching your neck, "Honestly, I just wanted to prank you a bit, make you feel a little embarrassed, and then..."

Max sighs, crossing her ankles on the bed. "You're impossible," she states, quickly sucking the leftover flavouring from the crisp on her fingertips.

Eh, this feeling sucks. You want to loosen the situation with one of those Chloe-Style™ lines, but it seems oddly inappropriate. Why on earth do you play a game that is not going by your rules in the first place? All you did was making the whole situation awkward. You shake your head, already set to move on.

But Max keeps the embers of the topic glowing and looks at you, a little more serious this time.

"Sorry. It looked like a purposefully open door to me. I thought you were just doing things Chloe-Style again." She looks down, uncomfortably scratching her chin. "Anyway, I just misread the signs." Apologetic puppy-eyes look at you. "I'm sorry! Are we still cool?"

Now or never.

"All cool," you say in a low voice, smirking as seductively as you can muster. You close in onto her. "I've just been a big dumb." You kneel onto her belly. She looks at you with huge eyes and an open mouth. "A gigantic, Chloe-Style dumb." Your hands find their way to Max's cheeks and you stroke her face with your thumbs, gently. You bite your lower lip. 'Quit being a chickenshit,' you scold yourself.

"Let me correct that, okay?"

With that, you drop your lips onto hers. All the anxiety drops. The world stops and for just a moment you are wondering, if Max stopped time for you both.

But when Max kisses you back, and the music keeps playing, you know you don't need powers to be stuck in the moment.  
You never knew how much you longed for this.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Randy_sensei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Randy_sensei) for betaing and saving my arse from some fandom specific blunders. Also thanks to the guy to actually introducing me to the Fandom and making me play the games. Check out his stuff!
> 
> Title is a song by Kyuss.


End file.
